Whyte explains changes for 2016 NW200

Steven Crawford

North West 200 Event Director, Mervyn Whyte, explains the significant changes to the race organisation for 2016 event.

“I think everyone would like to see the racing getting underway faster so we are making some changes to the grid management to speed things up,” Whyte said.

“Most importantly, we will run two groups instead of three in each race this year.”

These new measures, that will see two rather than three waves of riders and machines taking part in the sighting laps and race starts, should see Thursday evening’s three race programme and Saturday’s five events completed in less time.

Whyte also announced upgrades to the race communications for this year’s event.

“We want to keep riders, teams and fans up to date with everything that is going on so there will be an extra big screen put in place at the start and finish area and more speakers deployed around the course for the PA system,” he explained.

“We also want to encourage everyone to bring their radios and tune into BBC Radio Ulster’s brilliant live coverage on practice and race days so they will know exactly what is happening.”